Samsung Launches Visual Aid App for Visually Impaired

August 22, 20174:17 am

Samsung Electronics announced that it will launch ‘Relúmĭno,’ a visual aid application for people with low vision. ‘Relúmĭno’ is a visual aid application that works in conjunction with the Gear VR to enhance the vision of visually impaired people.

Users with newer models of Galaxy smartphones, including the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, S8 and S8+ will be able to download ‘Relúmĭno’ for free in the Oculus Store with support for both English and Korean.

‘Relúmĭno’ does not provide support for the totally blind.

From the developer:

“Relúmĭno will be the life-changer for 240 million of the visually impaired people around the world and we promise a firm and continuing support,” said Jaiil Lee, Vice President and Head of Creativity & Innovation Center at Samsung Electronics.

The visual aid application processes images from videos projected through the rear camera of a smartphone and makes the images visually impaired friendly. More specifically, its major features include magnifying and minimizing image; highlighting the image outline; adjusting color contrast and brightness; reversing color; and screen color filtering. The end effect is that ‘Relúmĭno’ enables visually challenged people to see images clearer when they are reading a book or viewing an object.

For those suffering from a blind spot in vision or the Tunnel Vision, which is the loss of peripheral vision with retention of central vision, ‘Relúmĭno’ aids by remapping unseen images to place in visible parts of the eye. Specifically, when users set the sizes of a blind spot or tunnel vision for the first use, the application automatically places the blind point in the visible surrounding parts and puts images within the ‘tunnel’ or visible range, helping users who have a visual field defect to see things better. Unlike other visual aids with similar quality that often cost thousands of dollars, ‘Relúmĭno’ users can enjoy equivalent features at a much more affordable price.

Earlier this year in Barcelona, Relúmĭno drew much attention in Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry. Samsung’s in-house incubator program, C-Lab received positive feedback for showcasing a technology developed to help the physically challenged people rather than pursuing profits with conventional VR devices.

Selected as a C-Lab project last May, Relúmĭno was first designed to help the visually impaired people enjoy daily activities such as watching TV and reading books like people with no physical handicap. The project members named its application ‘Relúmĭno’ meaning ‘Light up again’ in Latin as they wanted to help the visually impaired people feel the joy of daily activities that most people usually take for granted.

While most C-Lab projects are completed within a year, Relúmĭno will continue to carry out follow-up tasks. It plans to develop glasses-like products so that the visually impaired people can use the visual aids in their daily life without grabbing others’ attentions. In addition, the team will continuously address inconveniences that arise from the recently released application by getting users’ feedback.

Launched in December 2012, C-Lab is a startup business program that nurtures a creative corporate culture and innovative ideas among Samsung employees. The program supports projects that contribute to society like ‘Relúmĭno’ in addition to IT projects related to the Internet of Things (IoT), wearables and virtual reality.

About Nelson Régo

Nelson Régo is the owner and founder of the Cool Blind Tech website since November of 2012. Nelson launched the first show on March 14, 2013. He also directs the website as a whole, hiring staff, originating new shows, and approving all content.

What is your deepest darkest secret? Listen in as we open the doors to the VIP room with one of your favourite host Joel Ramos, as he opens up to his fellow hosts Jessica Rickards and newcomer Gabriel Vega, CEO of Commtech.

Think about the number of electronic appliances you encounter on a daily basis – using a microwave, adjusting the thermostat in your home, or buying a snack from the office vending machine. Now, imagine trying to operate any of these if you were blind. Impossible? Anhong Guo, Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), is turning this into a reality with the development of an interactive screen reader called VizLens.

• Ensure Narrator is running. Then go to Settings > Ease of Access (WIN + U) and under the Narrator settings, activate the “Download Braille” button. You will be prompted to install braille support.

• Under Settings > Ease of Access, activate the “Enable braille” button and add a braille display. Note that USB and serial connections for the display are supported.

• Under Settings > Ease of Access, choose the language and braille table you want to use.
Note detailed documentation about braille display key mappings will be made available in the Narrator User Guide closer to when the Windows 10 Creators Update is released.

NOTE:

There are coexistence issues with braille support and third party screen readers. Until the documentation is available, we recommend that braille be enabled for Narrator only on PCs that do not also have a third-party screen reader configured to use a braille display.

New mono audio option in Ease of Access settings

Visually impaired users use a screen reader application to read the PC screen content and information to them, and frequently use headphones or earbuds to hear the computer when in meetings or having conversations with others. When doing so, they generally use only one earbud to hear the PC in one ear so the other ear is free to hear conversations and sounds around them. That can cause them to not hear sounds that may be directed to the other earbud. In order to change the sound to be mono mode and so all audio is directed to both ears, they used to need a physical earphone adapter.

You can now switch your audio to mono straight from the new Audio section under Settings > Ease of Access > Other options.

A new startup, Innovision, has recognized to problem that exists for those who are blind

Although voice feedback is convenient, and it opens many opportunities, it doesn’t promote literacy. Blind people need access to braille material, and current pricing on braille displays keeps most people from being able to access the printed word, especially in developing countries.

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